FILE PHOTO: Electric cars are seen at Tesla charging station in Gulsvik, Norway March 17, 2019. REUTERS/Terje Solsvik/File Photo
OSLO
(Reuters) – Almost 60 percent of all new cars sold in Norway in March
were fully electric, the Norwegian Road Federation (NRF) said on Monday,
a global record set by a country seeking to end fossil-fueled vehicles
sales by 2025.
Exempting
battery engines from taxes imposed on diesel and petrol cars has
upended Norway’s auto market, elevating brands like Tesla and Nissan,
with its Leaf model, while hurting sales of Toyota, Daimler and others.
In
2018, Norway’s fully electric car sales rose to a record 31.2 percent
market share from 20.8 percent in 2017, far ahead of any other nation,
and buyers had to wait as producers struggled to keep up with demand.
The
surge of electrics to a 58.4 percent market share in March came as
Tesla ramped up delivery of its mid-sized Model 3, which retails from
442,000 crowns ($51,400), while Audi began deliveries of its
652,000-crowns e-tron sports utility vehicle.
(Editing by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African state arms company Denel is in talks with Airbus about winding down production of parts for the European planemaker’s A400M military aircraft, Denel said on Saturday.
Denel, a cornerstone of South Africa’s once mighty defense industry, is battling to emerge from a financial and operational crisis. In February it said it could sell stakes in some divisions as part of a strategy to return to profits within two years.
The company has also been trying to renegotiate onerous contracts and exit parts of its business which are no longer viable, after making a 1.7 billion rand ($117 million) loss in the 2017/18 financial year.
Denel said it was yet to finalize terms with Airbus for the winding down of production for the A400M.
“The two companies agreed that the continued manufacturing of aircraft parts by Denel is no longer sustainable in its current form,” Denel said in a statement. “Alternative options are now being considered between the two parties.”
Denel will try to minimize the impact on jobs at its Aeronautics division, it added.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by David Holmes)
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) – Two U.S. Marine pilots died when their helicopter crashed near Yuma, Arizona, during a routine training mission, the Pentagon said on Sunday.
The Marines were flying an AH-1Z Viper helicopter as part of a weapons and tactics instructor course when the crash occurred late on Saturday, the Pentagon said.
The cause of the crash is being investigated. The Pentagon said the identities of the pilots would not be released for 24 hours pending notification of next of kin.
The AH-1Z Viper, a twin-engine attack helicopter built by Textron Inc subsidiary Bell Helicopter, entered production in late 2010. The Marine Corps was to acquire a total of 189 of the aircraft, according to a March 7 news release.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Dan Grebler and Daniel Wallis)
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnamese carrier Bamboo Airways has signed a firm
deal to buy 50 Airbus A321Neo planes, its chairman Trinh Van Quyet said
on Thursday.
The first of the planes will be delivered in 2022, Quyet told Reuters.
He said Bamboo Airways will conduct its first international flights late next month, to Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(Reporting by Khanh Vu; editing by David Evans)
FILE PHOTO: An Airbus A321 aircraft of Bamboo Airways taxis at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi, Vietnam January 16, 2019. REUTERS/Kham
FILE
PHOTO: Bikes by a bike rental service of Icelandic airline WOW air are
seen in Reykjavik, Iceland, August 5, 2017. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File
Photo
(Reuters)
– Iceland’s WOW air became the latest budget airline casualty on
Thursday, halting operations and cancelling all future flights after
efforts to raise more funds failed.
WOW,
which focussed on low-cost travel across the Atlantic, advised stranded
travellers to seek flights with other airlines. It flew a total of 3.5
million passengers last year.
“This
is probably the hardest thing I have ever done but the reality is that
we have run out of time and have unfortunately not been able to secure
the funding of the company,” WOW CEO and founder Skuli Mogensen wrote in
a letter to the company’s 1,000 employees.
“I will never be able to forgive myself for not taking action sooner,” he added.
WOW
had earlier postponed flights on Thursday as it entered what it had
hoped were the final stages of an equity raising with a group of
investors.
“My
flight from Boston has been cancelled. Having a hard time getting
through to anyone on the phone. Can you help me at all?” Twitter user
Marc Solari wrote.
WOW replied with an apology and offer of further assistance.
WOW
is the latest budget airline to collapse as the European airline sector
grapples with over-capacity and high fuel costs. Recent failures
include Britain’s Flybmi, Nordic budget airline Primera Air and Cypriot
counterpart Cobalt.
“RESCUE FARES”
Other
airlines including, Icelandair, Easyjet and Norwegian stepped in
offering discounted ‘rescue fares’ to stranded passengers, according to
the Icelandic Transport Authority
WOW has been pursuing different avenues to raise money over the past few months.
It
ended talks with rival Icelandair last Sunday while veteran low-cost
airline investor Bill Franke also had cancelled a proposed investment
through private equity fund Indigo Partners.
Icelandair shares traded up 13 percent percent at 1215 GMT after the failure of a competitor.
Founded
in 2011 by entrepreneur Mogensen, WOW used smaller single-aisle planes
to fly between Iceland and many destinations in the United States and
Europe.
Its
website had advertised flights from London to cities such as New York
and Boston for as little as 150 pounds, although the journey went via
the Icelandic capital Reykjavik.
Norwegian
Air has a little over half of the market share in the fast-growing,
low-cost, long-haul transatlantic market, while WOW controlled a quarter
in 2018.
There are fears of a knock-on effect on Iceland’s important tourism industry.
Around
30 percent of tourists visiting Iceland last year flew with WOW and the
collapse could trigger a 16 percent drop in tourists this year,
research from Icelandic bank Arion showed.
( By Stine Jacobsen and Tommy Lund; editing by Darren Schuettler/Keith Weir)
Barcelona, Spain – December 06, 2018: WOW Air Airbus A321 approaching to El Prat Airport in Barcelona, Spain.
FILE
PHOTO: The Airbus logo is pictured at Airbus headquarters in Blagnac
near Toulouse, France, March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus shares rose on Tuesday after the European planemaker won a deal worth tens of billions of dollars to sell 300 aircraft to China.
Airbus was up 2.7 percent by 1208 GMT, with the stock having risen nearly 40 percent so far in 2019.
French
officials said the deal was worth some 30 billion euros (25.6 billion
pounds) at catalogue prices. Planemakers usually grant significant
discounts.
The
Chinese order was announced late on Monday, coinciding with a visit to
Europe by Chinese President Xi Jinping and matching a China record held
by U.S. rival Boeing.
Investment bank Citigroup kept its “buy” rating on Airbus.
“We
do not have details of the delivery schedule of this order, but China
has been taking about 20-25 percent of Airbus production per year and
given the A320 family is sold out at announced production rates out to
2024/25, we believe this increases the probability of Airbus moving to a
production rate of 70 per month,” wrote Citigroup.
That positive view was echoed by Morgan Stanley, which kept an “overweight” rating on Airbus shares.
“Clearly
finalisation of this order is a positive for Airbus, and continues to
underpin strong order book coverage and rising production rates in
narrowbody,” Morgan Stanley said.
The
larger-than-expected order, which matches an order for 300 Boeing
planes when U.S. Donald Trump visited Beijing in 2017, follows a
year-long vacuum of purchases in which China failed to place significant
orders amid global trade tensions.
It
also comes as the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX has left uncertainty
over Boeing’s immediate hopes for a major jet order as the result of any
warming of U.S.-China trade ties.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Leigh Thomas and Jane Merriman)
OTTAWA
(Reuters) – As Boeing Co and global airlines work to restore public
confidence in the 737 MAX after two deadly crashes, they will have a
play book they can use.
This
is not the first time that Boeing has faced a crisis after launching a
new plane with innovative technology. In 1965, three Boeing 727-100
passenger jets crashed in less than three months in the United States
while coming into land, killing a total of 131 people.
Like
the 737 MAX, the three-engined 727 was billed as one of the most
advanced aircraft of its time. Boeing introduced the 727 in 1964 and
portrayed it as a more efficient alternative to the standard four-engine
jets of the day, with new features designed to make the 727 easier to
operate from short airfields.
The
727’s wing flap system, which provides extra lift at low speeds, was
unusually large and sophisticated, which allowed the plane to descend
more quickly than other rivals and avoid buildings and other obstacles
close to runways.
Investigators
looking into the crashes discovered that some pilots did not fully
understand the flap system and were therefore allowing the planes to
descend at too great a speed.
“There was nothing wrong with the airplane… (but) if you didn’t really pay a lot of attention to it you could build up an immense sink rate,” said Bill Waldock, a professor of safety science at the U.S-based Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He uses the 727 accidents as part of a case study.
Aviation
authorities ordered more training for pilots but allowed the planes to
keep flying despite calls from some politicians to ground them.
Boeing made some modifications to the flight manual and to the procedures for flying the airplane on final approach.
In the case of the 737 MAX 8, Boeing is working on software and training updates. [L3N21C0FP]
Alan
Hoffman, a U.S. aviation historian and retired transportation lawyer
who has researched the 727 accidents, said given the publicity over the
recent crashes, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration would only
allow the 737 MAX 8 planes to fly again if the regulator is convinced
the fixes worked.
“The
airplane will go back into service and unless something else crops up
there will be no further problems and a year from now this will all be a
dim distant memory,” he predicted by phone from St Louis, Missouri.
Boeing was not immediately available for comment.
In
contrast to the swift grounding of the 737 MAX 8 after the recent
second accident, just two days after the third fatal 727 crash, in
November 1965, the Civil Aeronautics Board said there was no reason to
ground the plane.
“It
passed very rigid certification tests … before it was put into
service and nothing has turned up in our investigation to cause us to
doubt its stability,” the board said.
Those
words did not immediately reassure many travellers. Indeed, passengers
had started to boycott the airliner after the crashes began.
“For
a period of six months or so a lot of 727s were flying with half full
cabins,” Waldock said by phone from Prescott, Arizona. Still, the 727
crisis passed.
The
plane eventually became one of Boeing’s best sellers and was in
widespread use for another 30 years. By 2003, virtually all had been
retired as airlines moved away from the 727’s loud and thirsty engines.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Joe White and Cynthia Osterman)
OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian Air will lease planes and postpone the sale of older models in its fleet following the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, the airline said on Monday.
The budget carrier will also use some of its bigger Boeing 787 Dreamliners to offset the effects of the grounding of its 18 MAX jets – about 11 percent of its fleet.
The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide this month following a deadly crash in Ethiopia.
“In addition to continuing combining flights and reallocating aircraft, the company has decided to delay potential sales of six Boeing 737-800 aircraft and use available 787 Dreamliner capacity on high-volume routes, which will add flexibility,” Norwegian said in a statement.
“The company is further preparing to wetlease aircraft to fill the remaining capacity gap,” it added, referring to the industry practice of renting fully-staffed aircraft for a period of time.
Norwegian said earlier this month it would seek compensation from Boeing for costs resulting from the grounding of the global MAX fleet.
“The company has a good dialogue with Boeing and is confident of reaching a constructive agreement,” Norwegian said, without elaborating.
Norwegian Air CEO repeats plan to turn profitable in 2019
Norwegian Air aims to turn profitable this year, its chief executive said on Monday, reiterating plans to turn around the situation at the loss-making budget airline.
“We aim to become profitable in 2019,” Bjoern Kjos told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. “We’re managing well as an independent company.”
SINGAPORE/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Boeing Co said it invited more than 200 airline pilots, technical leaders and regulators for an information session on Wednesday as it looks to return the 737 MAX to commercial service.
The meeting is a sign that Boeing’s planned software patch is nearing completion, though it will still need regulatory approval.
Over the weekend, Ethiopian Airlines executives had questioned whether Boeing had told pilots enough about “aggressive” software that pushes the plane’s nose down, a focus of investigation into a deadly crash in Ethiopia this month that led to the global grounding of 737 MAX jets.
The informational session in Renton, Washington on Wednesday is part of a plan to reach all current and many future 737 MAX operators and their home regulators to discuss software and training updates to the jet, Boeing said in a statement.
Garuda Indonesia, which on Friday said it planned to cancel its order for 49 737 MAX jets citing a loss of passenger trust after the crashes, was invited to the briefing, CEO Ari Askhara told Reuters on Monday.
“We were informed on Friday, but because it is short notice we can’t send a pilot there,” he said, adding the airline had requested a webinar with Boeing but that idea had been rejected.
A Boeing spokeswoman said the Wednesday event was one of a series of in-person information sessions.
“We have been scheduling and will continue to arrange additional meetings to communicate with all current and many future MAX customers and operators,” she said.
Garuda has only one 737 MAX and had been reconsidering its order before the Ethiopian crash, as has fellow Indonesian carrier Lion Air, which experienced a deadly crash in October.
Singapore Airlines Ltd said on Monday its offshoot SilkAir, which operates the 737 MAX, had received the invitation to the Wednesday event and would send representatives.
Korean Air Lines Co Ltd, which before the grounding had been due to receive its first 737 MAX in April, said it planned to send pilots to Renton.
The 737 MAX is Boeing’s best-selling plane, with orders worth more than $500 billion at list prices.
Teams from the three U.S. airlines that own 737 MAX jets participated in a session in Renton reviewing a planned software upgrade on Saturday.
A U.S. official briefed on the matter Saturday said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not yet signed off on the software upgrade and training but the goal is to review them in coming weeks and approve them by April.
It remained unclear whether the software upgrade, called “design changes” by the FAA, will resolve concerns stemming from the ongoing investigation into the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which killed all 157 on board.
“After the crash it came to our attention that the system is aggressive,” Yohannes Hailemariam, vice president for flight operations at Ethiopian, told local reporters speaking in the Amharic language.
“It gives a message of stalling and it takes immediate action which is faster than the action which pilots were briefed to take by Boeing,” said Yohannes, himself a pilot with over 30 years of experience, including flying Boeing’s 777 and 787.
The U.S. official said planned changes included 15 minutes of training to help pilots deactivate the anti-stall system known as MCAS in the event of faulty sensor data or other issues. It also included some self-guided instruction, the official added.
American Airlines said Sunday it will extend flight cancellations through April 24 because of the grounding of the 737 MAX and cut some additional flights.
(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore and Jason Neely in Addis Ababa; additional reporting by Cindy Silviana in Jakarta, Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Michael Perry)
JAKARTA/OSLO
(Reuters) – Indonesian airline Garuda plans to cancel a $6 billion
order for Boeing 737 MAX jets, it said on Friday, saying some passengers
would be frightened to board the plane after two fatal crashes,
although analysts said the deal had long been in doubt.
The
news came as another 737 MAX customer, Norwegian Air, played down the
significance of a move by Boeing to make a previously optional cockpit
warning light compulsory.
Norwegian
said that, according to Boeing, the warning light would not have been
able to prevent erroneous signals that Lion Air pilots received before
their new 737 MAX plane crashed off Indonesia in October, killing 189
people.
Indonesia’s
national carrier Garuda is the first airline to publicly announce plans
to scrap an order since the world’s entire fleet of 737 MAX planes was
grounded last week, following an Ethiopian Airlines crash that left 157
people dead.
“Many passengers told us they were afraid to get on a MAX 8,” Garuda CEO Ari Askhara told Reuters on Friday.
However,
the airline had been reconsidering its order for 49 of the narrowbody
jets prior to the Ethiopian crash, including potentially swapping some
for widebody Boeing models.
Southeast
Asia faces a glut of narrowbody aircraft like the 737 MAX and rival
Airbus A320neo at a time of slowing global economic growth and high fuel
costs.
“They
have been re-looking at their fleet plan anyway so this is an
opportunity to make some changes that otherwise may be difficult to do,”
CAPA Centre for Aviation Chief Analyst Brendan Sobie said.
Indonesia’s
Lion Air has also said it might cancel 737 MAX aircraft, though
industry sources say it is also struggling to absorb the number of
planes on order.
Both
crashes are still being investigated. But regulators have noted some
similarities between the two, and attention has focused on whether
pilots had the correct information about the “angle of attack” at which
the wing slices through the air.
No direct link has been proven between the accidents.
RETROFITS
Boeing
now plans to make compulsory a light to alert pilots when sensor
readings of the angle of attack do not match – meaning at least one must
be wrong -, according to two officials briefed on the matter.
Investigators
suspect a faulty angle-of-attack reading led the doomed Lion Air jet’s
computer to believe it had stalled, prompting the plane’s anti-stall
system, called MCAS, repeatedly to push the plane’s nose down.
The
Lion Air plane did not have the warning light installed because it was
not compulsory. Ethiopian Airlines did not immediately comment on
whether its crashed plane had the alert.
But
the Ethiopian carrier, whose reputation along with Boeing’s is at
stake, issued a statement on Friday emphasising the modernity of its
safety and training systems, with more than $500 million invested in
infrastructure in the past five years.
The
Ethiopian crash has set off one of the widest inquiries in aviation
history and cast a shadow over the Boeing 737 MAX model intended to be a
standard for decades.
Boeing
did not comment on the plan to make the safety feature standard, but
separately said it was moving quickly to make software changes and
expected the upgrade to be approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) in coming weeks.
Chicago-based Boeing will also retrofit older planes with the cockpit warning light, the officials told Reuters.
Experts
said it could take weeks or months to be done, and for regulators to
review and approve the changes. Regulators in Europe and Canada have
said they will conduct their own reviews of any new systems.
Norwegian
said its 18 737 MAX jets did not have the cockpit warning light, but it
would follow any recommendations made by Boeing and aviation
regulations. The airline said last week it would seek compensation from
Boeing for the cost of grounding its 737 MAX planes, which makes up 11
percent of its fleet.
Since the Ethiopian crash, Boeing shares have fallen 12 percent and $28 billion has been wiped off its market value.
Pressure
has mounted on the company from U.S. legislators, who are also expected
to question the FAA. The company faces a criminal investigation by the
U.S. Justice Department as well.
Several
lawsuits have already been filed on behalf of victims of the Lion Air
crash referring to the Ethiopian accident. Boeing declined to comment on
the lawsuits.
( By Cindy Silviana and Terje Solsvik, Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore, Bernadette Christina Munthe in Jakarta, Maggie Fick and Jason Neely in Addis Ababa, Tim Hepher in Paris, and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh, Georgina Prodhan and Ben Klayman; Editing by Mark Potter)
